Apple Watch Series 8 tips and tricks: 20 great features to try

The best tips and tricks for the Series 8 Apple Watch

1. Get email alerts when your iPhone isn't connected.

Users of the Apple Watch have been able to get email alerts from third-party accounts for a long time. These alerts are sent from the user's paired iPhone. But with watchOS 9, you can also get a notification when an important message comes in even if you're not near your iPhone.

The option needs to be turned on by hand and uses iCloud servers to access the third-party account securely. To set it up, open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap My Watch, tap Mail, and then turn on Email Notifications under "When Not Connected to iPhone."

2. Look at the Activity Rings while you work out

Before, if you were doing a workout on your Apple Watch and wanted to see how it affected your activity rings, you had to leave the Workout app and go to the Activity app.

Now you don't have to. With this Apple Watch Series 8 trick, you can scroll up with the Digital Crown to see your activity rings right on the workout screen.

3. Keep up with podcasts

In watchOS 9, Apple finally fixed its broken Podcasts app. For the first time, you can now follow and unfollow podcasts right from your Apple Watch.

Tap Listen Now, then tap You Might Like, tap a show, and then tap Follow. You can also look for a show and tap on it to find the same options.

4. Put your calendar on your wrist

With this Apple Watch Series 8 trick, you can do more than just look at your iPhone's calendar on your wrist. You can now also add events. When you stop scrolling, just tap the ellipsis (three dots) button that appears in the corner of the screen, then tap New Event.

On the next screen, you can add all the usual details, like the event's title, location, start date and time, end date and time, and whether or not it will happen again. Before you click "Add," you can also choose which calendar to add the event to, invite people, choose whether or not to get alerts, and add any notes you want.

5. Watch Face of the Stars

In iOS 16, Apple changed the settings for the iPhone Lock Screen and added new dynamic wallpaper options. The Astronomy watch face in watchOS 9 may be a reflection of these changes.

Astronomy is a reworked version of the original Astronomy watch face. It has been updated with a new star map and cloud information based on where you are. You can set the main view to be the Earth, the Moon, or the Solar System, and you can change the font. It has room for two complications, and turning the Digital Crown lets you see the moon phase or where a planet was on another day quickly.

6. Backtrack lets you go back over your steps.

You don't need an Apple Watch Ultra to use the Backtrack feature in the new Compass app. You can use an Apple Watch Series 8 to track your route and help you find your way back if you get lost.

Tap the footprints icon at the bottom right of the screen, then tap Start to start recording your route. When you're ready to go back, tap the pause button in the lower right corner of the screen and then tap Retrace Steps.

On the compass, your starting point will show up, and a white arrow will point you in the right direction. Follow the path back to get back to where you were when you first turned on Backtrack. Once you're back where you started, tap the footprints icon to delete your steps.

7. Change the watch face depending on the focus

With iOS 16, you can change just about every part of your Focus. You can set more than just the Home Screen and Lock Screen. With this Apple Watch Series 8 trick, you can choose one of your Apple Watch faces to turn on on your wrist when you switch to a certain Focus mode.

Go to Settings > Focus on your iPhone and choose an existing Focus or make a new one. Set any options for people and apps to silence notifications when your Focus is on. Then, go to "Customize Screens" and tap "Edit" next to the watch face option. Choose a watch face from the gallery on your Apple Watch, then tap Done.

That's the end of the story. Now that your chosen Apple Watch face is linked to your Focus Mode, it will turn on automatically when you turn on Focus on your iPhone.

8. See Messages That Have Been Changed

Apple added the ability to edit iMessage texts in iOS 16. With Apple Watch Series 8, you can see any changes that have been made to a message you've received.

To see the changes, tap and hold the blue word "Edited" below the message. Tap "Hide Edits" to get rid of them again.

9. Edit Reminders

Before, you could only view or add reminders with the Reminders app. With this Apple Watch Series 8 trick, you can now edit existing reminders and add important details, like the date and time, location, tags, and notes. You can also use your wrist to move reminders between lists.

10. Change Calendar View

In the Calendar app on Apple Watch, you can now not only add new events, but also switch between day, list, and week views.

Tap the ellipsis (three dots) button that appears in the corner of the screen when you stop scrolling. Then, choose from Up Next, Day, or List under "View Options." Tap Done when you've made your choice.

11. Put your favorite apps on the dock

The Dock used to be where you went to quickly get to your most recently used apps. You could get there by pressing the Side button. With this cool Apple Watch Series 8 tip, you can change it so that your favorite apps are listed in the order you like them.

Open the Watch app on your iPhone, and then tap Dock. Select Favorites under "Dock Ordering," then tap the Edit button to choose your favorite apps. You can dock up to 10 apps on Apple Watch, and you can change the order by dragging the three lines next to each app.

12. Stop using cell phone data

You've been able to turn off cellular data on an iPhone for years without losing the ability to make and receive calls. Before, cellular Apple Watch models didn't have this option. When your cellular service was turned on, so was cellular data, which quickly drained your battery.

Apple has made it easier to control your watch's basic mobile service and mobile data with watchOS 9. They now have their own switches, so you can control them separately. You can find the settings in the Cellular/Mobile Data section of your watch's Settings app.

13. Detection of Kickboard Swim and SWOLF Score

The Apple Watch Series 8 can now automatically tell when you're using a kickboard during a pool swim workout, which is good news for swimmers.

You can even get your SWOLF score, which is one of the most important swim-specific metrics, from the Workout app. SWOLF is worked out by adding up the number of strokes you take and the amount of time you spend in the water. As a measure of how well you swim, your SWOLF score goes down if you take less time and fewer strokes.

14. Text Size Control

In watchOS 9, Apple has added a Text Size control to the Control Center. This makes it easier for apps that support Dynamic Type to change the size of the text to your preferred reading size.

15. Auto-punctuation for dictation

Dictation is a popular way to send messages on Apple Watch because it turns your voice into text, which is much faster than typing on a small keyboard. With this Apple Watch Series 8 trick, you can add commas and question marks to your sentences without having to say "comma" or "question mark" out loud.

The feature should be on by default, but if it isn't, you can turn on Auto Punctuation by going to Settings > General > Dictation.

16. Mirroring on an Apple Watch

With iOS 16 and watchOS 9, Apple added a new feature called "Apple Watch Mirroring," which lets you see and control the screen of your Apple Watch from your iPhone. It's meant to make the watch easier for people with physical or motor disabilities to use, but it can also help if, for example, your Apple Watch screen is broken or won't work.

To turn it on, open the Settings app on your iPhone, tap Accessibility, tap Apple Watch Mirroring under "Physical and Motor," and then turn it on in the next screen.

On the screen of your iPhone, a picture of your Apple Watch will appear, and a blue outline will appear around the face of your Apple Watch to show that mirroring is on. You can now control your Apple Watch by tapping and swiping on the picture of the watch that shows up on your iPhone. You can also tap the Side button and swipe the Digital Crown to do the same things you would do with your hands on your watch.

17. Simple Steps

With this Apple Watch Series 8 trick, people with different upper body limbs can now do even more with a double-pinch gesture to respond to alerts, like answer or end a phone call, take a photo when the viewfinder and shutter button are showing in the Camera app, play or pause media in the Now Playing app, and start, pause, or resume a workout. You can also snooze an alarm or stop a timer with quick actions.

For Quick Actions to work, Open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap Accessibility, and then click Quick Actions under "Motor." You can choose either "On," "When AssistiveTouch is Enabled," or "Off." You can also choose between Full and Minimal for how they look.

When you turn on Quick Actions, your Apple Watch will tell you to do a Quick Action when you get an alert. When you pause a workout, for example, a prompt tells you that you can double-pinch to start it again (tap index finger to thumb twice quickly).

18. You can use Apple Watch to control your iPhone

In a way that's kind of the opposite of Apple Watch Mirroring, you can also use your Apple Watch to control your iPhone. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Control Nearby Devices on your watch. Choose your iPhone or iPad from the list of devices.

Once you're connected, you'll see a set of buttons that let you do different things with your iPhone, such as Go to Home Screen, Open App Switcher, Open Notification Center, Open Control Center, and Turn on Siri. If you click "More," you can also control how your media plays.

19. Look for Your Car

The redesigned Compass app lets you set up Compass Waypoints and then find out how far apart they are and in what direction they are. You can also use this feature to find your parked car.

If your car has CarPlay or Bluetooth, you don't have to do anything to set it up. If your iPhone is connected to your car in some way, your Apple Watch can tell when you've parked and disconnected, and it will mark where your car is by dropping a waypoint.

Start the Compass app, and then look for a blue waypoint on your compass dial. If you turn the Digital Crown, the dial will zoom in and out, showing you how far away your car is. Tap the waypoint to learn more about it, then tap Select to see a pointer that will lead you to your car.

If you use this feature a lot, you can add a Parked Car Waypoint complication to your Watch face, which will show you how to get to your car.

20. Add Favorite Timers

If you use certain timer lengths often, why not mark them as favorites? With this trick for the Apple Watch Series 8, you can.

Just open the Timer app, swipe left on a timer you've used recently, and then tap the star icon that shows up. The timer you marked as a favorite will now be at the top of your list of timers until you swipe left on it and tap the red X to get rid of it.